Basil Bain served as a cook in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was stationed on the island of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific Ocean. Monday was a day that every soldier looked forward to.

In the 1930s, because of the Great Depression, thousands of American men “rode the rails” in search of employment. They were commonly called hobos, but Zelma Hunt preferred to call them “traveling gentlemen.”

In 1941 Rolland Cole stepped off a freight train in Baker, Oregon. Rolland was a hobo. He was like hundreds and thousands of other men who rode the rails during the years of the Great Depression looking for work and for a way to earn a living for themselves and their families.

Margarethe Johanna Hertha von Voigt (pronounced fŏn Fōt) was 17, and too young to compete in the 1960 Olympics in Stockholm. But she was Germany’s best standby junior rider, and was invited to accompany the horse team as an observer.

Charlie Rich decided that raising pigs would be an enjoyable activity and the perfect sideline. Linda was agreeable, as long as she didn’t have to be involved. Charlie bought— and loved—dozens, perhaps hundreds, of pigs.

Darold Parry was a truck driver transporting a load of hogs from Nebraska to Los Angeles, California. When he reached the big city, he found himself in stop-and-go traffic.

Dave Miller was free-hand rock climbing out of Morrison, Colorado. Free-hand rock climbing is done without gear of any kind—no crampons, no ropes, no safety harness—just one’s hands and feet.

The neighborhood was in a stir last evening with the finding of Bigfoot tracks in the snow only several hundred yards from the last house up the road.

The tracks were discovered by two brothers-in-law, Josh and Rob.

A story told by Aaron

Did you know you could get a horse stuck? I got a horse stuck once. I was trying to corral a cow so that I could treat her for mastitis. She was wild and high-headed. I chased her alongside a wet swale that she kept crossing.

Brent Kerns has four working cow horses. Two of them are buddies, and can always be found together. On the morning of March 7, 2010 he had just finished feeding them when he noticed one of the two buddies acting very oddly.

“There is a heat vent in the floor beside my bed that I step on or over every time I get into or out of bed,” I told my friends, Maretta and Vernon. “One day I leaned over the end of the bed to get my shoes,

Vernon Jones was a heavy smoker. He began smoking at the age of 10 when he and a young friend stole cigarettes from the store of his friend’s grandfather. On one occasion they stole a pack of Chesterfields and took them to the outhouse where they intended to smoke the entire pack.

In the 1970s Dr. Lee Adams and his friends were sailing enthusiasts. Together they determined to do the transpacific sailing race from California to Hawaii. The race would require 4 or 5 men being cooped up in close quarters for a two-week period of time on a small craft.

Having served his two years of active duty in the U. S. Navy, 20-year-old Eli Eggers was actively pursuing the next phase of his life. He had fought two shipboard fires during his term of duty,

In the early 1980’s Deryl Leggett was the credit officer who serviced agricultural loans for the Production Credit Association in Grant County, Oregon. Many of the loans came up for renewal during the winter.

Early one Sunday morning in 1980, Janet Kerns was sitting alone in her quiet living room. The house was situated at the end of the county road on the foothills of the Elkhorn Mountains.

Rafter was Brent and Mary Kerns’ horse. He was a good, obedient horse. To load him in the stock trailer, all that was necessary was to loop the reins up over the saddle horn and tell him to get in.

Brent had a recalcitrant horse whose disposition could only be described as nasty. The horse was worked with for three years before it was sold to a bucking string for use in the rodeo circuit.

Brent and Mary Kerns grieved over the loss of their well-trained stock dog. On a road trip Mary was reading the advertisements in the Nickel where she found, “Border Collie, free to good home.”

Years ago Dennis Spence told me that he was driving down my lane when a hawk dropped in the road ahead of him. He got out of his vehicle to look, and found the hawk with a weasel in its talons, and the weasel had a death grip on the hawk’s neck.

Years ago Dennis Spence told me that he was driving down my lane when a hawk dropped in the road ahead of him. He got out of his vehicle to look, and found the hawk with a weasel in its talons, and the weasel had a death grip on the hawk’s neck.

One windless fall night the temperature dropped well below freezing. In the morning, Mac Kerns’ Wingville pond was iced over with a virtually invisible layer of ice.

Mac Kerns’ son bought a small flock of Barbados sheep to use in training his stock dog. Barbados sheep are brown, and a bit smaller than regular sheep.

Lyle Defrees’ father, Albert, had a big, mean-tempered Holstein bull. Whenever anyone entered the corral he lowered his head in a threatening manner.

One day Albert brought a buck sheep home from a neighbor’s place, and unloaded it into the bull’s corral. The bull resented the intruder, and lowered his head. The buck sheep backed up, and with lightning speed and great impact, rammed the bull head to head.

The bull dropped like a rock. And there he lay for a whole day—knocked unconscious. Finally he got to his feet, and never again lowered his head to anything or anyone.

Silas Turner lists three strange and unusual events to which he’s been witness.

In the first, he and his father, Don, were hiking in the mountains looking for wildlife to photograph.

Darlene Friedlander’s husband died this week. (Written 5 January 1997). Darlene is a good member of the Church. After they got married 17 years ago her husband joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Walt Smutz was a truck driver for Boise Cascade. One winter day he was trucking in the Tri-Cities area in the state of Washington. The road was icy and slick.

Gary Dielman spends time each summer hiking in the Elkhorn and Wallowa Mountains. One of his hobbies is to climb to the tops of high peaks on clear days and take 360-degree snapshots of the view.

A cheerful disposition and easy-going manner pay big dividends. On the other hand, a disposition to bully people and be hard to get along with usually end up costing the mean person—hereinafter referred to as the MP.

Jim and Vernon were brothers-in-law living side-by-side on their recently-acquired farmsteads in New Mexico. One ran a nuts and bolts business, and the other was an attorney.

Darrel Holliday has eight daughters. That in itself makes him a remarkable man. Even more remarkable is that he has not only survived them, but also an encounter with a cougar.

A young man, who we will call John, jogged, biked or hiked nearly every day in the woods near his Oregon home. He enjoyed the forest and the air, the birds and the animals.

Champ Bond was a mechanical genius. He could figure out any mechanical problem, fix anything, and even invented machines that are still in use 60 years later.